Hemel Hempstead Town boss Sammy Moore was full of praise for his Tudors side after winning 2-0 over ten-man Chelmsford City.

Sammy Moore’s side had been under intense pressure during the first half; however, Clarets defender Adrian Cascaval was shown a straight red card for an alleged elbow on Alex Wall.

Hemel were made to wait to score against the stubborn visitors though. Sam Ashford opened the scoring on 75 minutes with a low finish past Carl Pentney before Jack Midson doubled their lead from the penalty spot.

The victory, Hemel’s fourth in five home matches, sends the Tudors third in the League and was a welcomed present for Moore on his birthday.

“It’s always nice to get a win on your birthday,” Moore said afterwards. “I think that’s the perfect present. I’m absolutely delighted with the boys to get three points against another tough Chelmsford.

“We didn’t play well in the first half but I don’t think Chelmsford really threatened our goal. They had a lot of the ball and maybe [Tom] Wraight should have scored but apart from that we never really got going.

“Second half I thought we were outstanding. We moved the ball perfectly well and I’m delighted for Sam Ashton to get the goal and [Jack] Midson to score the penalty as well.

“It’s a good three points and a professional performance.”

Sending off was the correct decision

The Tudors had struggled to produce any clear-cut chances during the first forty minutes; however, the former Concord Rangers boss said referee Scott Tallis made the correct decision in sending off Adrian Cascaval.

“I was five or six yards away [from the incident],” he said. “He hasn’t looked at the ball, he looked like he knew what he was doing.

“He’s elbowed [Alex] Wall and it’s a straight red from where I am. The referee came over and said ‘is it a red?’ to the linesman but I think he was going to give it anyway.”

One negative taken from the fixture was the enforced second-half substitution after Alex Wall went down with an injury.

The former Gillingham striker had been limited to making only cameo appearances from the bench due to an ongoing injury; however, on his first start for Hemel since signing, he was forced off through another injury.

“We’ve not assessed him but it doesn’t look good,” said Moore. “It looks like we are going to miss him for even longer than he was out before but we’ve got a squad.

“It’s testing times but we’re in the right place; we’re sitting third in the table and we’ve had injuries. So it shows we have got a good squad. We need to keep plugging away and if we can do that then we’ll be there or thereabouts come the end of the season.”